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Diamondbacks earning reputation as a dirty team

The dirtiest team in baseball. That's the Arizona Diamondbacks' new reputation. Are you proud of them? Some people seem to think the weekend plunking ofAndrew McCutchen was proper retribution. Some people are

The dirtiest team in baseball. That's the Arizona Diamondbacks' new reputation.

Are you proud of them?

Some people seem to think the weekend plunking of Pittsburgh Pirates' Andrew McCutchen was proper retribution. Some people are clobbering general manager Kevin Towers and manager Kirk Gibson for the team's warped view of retaliation.

A lot of people are missing the point.

Bottom line: If you believe the Pirates were not trying to hit Paul Goldschmidt with a pitch that broke his hand, then there is no room for what the Diamondbacks did the following day. Accidents don't scream for retaliation.

If unwritten rules declare otherwise, then this incident proves the idiocy of unwritten rules.

Start with Gibson, who has been called a meat-head and worse by members of the national media. I think he's mostly a passenger in this, even though he's the one who fist-bumped Evan Marshall for the plunking of Milwaukee Brewers' Ryan Braun.

Just remember, it's Towers who put down the "Eye for an Eye" mandate last season, emphasizing that it would be a condition of employment for all future Diamondbacks pitchers.

The big question is whether Diamondbacks' president Tony La Russa approves of what went down at Chase Field, or whether this incident will be a public relations nightmare that practically forces La Russa to clean house.

La Russa was out of town, removed from this unfortunate chain of events. But from the moment Goldschmidt got hurt Friday night to the first pitch on Saturday, there had to be conferences, meetings and discussions among the team's chief decision makers.

After all, this is Goldschmidt we're talking about, the team's franchise player. And in that light, it's hard to believe La Russa wouldn't be informed, that he wouldn't be in the loop.

Meanwhile, majority owner Ken Kendrick is out of the country, and not expected back until this weekend.

The Diamondbacks are in a tough spot here. They can't publicly admit to retaliation, even though their intent was obvious. If they do, they open the door to fines and suspensions.

Problem is, they look like cowards when they can't own or explain their tough-guy policy. And on an issue this polarizing, it would be nice to know what they believe, what they stand for, and when these displays of toughness will actually result in a better baseball team.